Skip to main content

Thin PC

How does a Thin PC work?

We have recently started recycling old PC's as Thin PC - using Windows 7 Embedded. So basically using them as terminal to a remote desktop server. Gives old machines a new lease of life for no cost (assuming you have a EES agreement with MS). The trick is to get the Thin PC to go straight to the rdp to the server you want. So key steps if you are interested are:

  • Put the Thin-PC in a OU where there is a group policy that auto logs on a standard user.
  • Change the shell from explorer to %windir%\system32\mstsc.exe
  • I have one script that calls a vbs script that runs the rdp session and loops to re-run it on exit or if the user tries to close the session. Key thing is to run the scripts silently so the user cannot close them.
  • Lock Crtl-Alt-Del down with gpo so user just gets Cancel as the only option. 

Anyone wants to know more - let me know.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Delete a specific email using GAM

If a user send an inappropriate email to a loads of people or get stung by some sort of email exploit you can quickly delete the email from all of the recipients using a GAM command.
Step 1 - get the email header Go into Google Vault and search for the offending user or someone known to have got the message.
Click show details and grab the email ID. This will be a long string of characters followed by @mail.gmail.com
Step 2 - find out who has the email Go into Google Vault and find the original message sent by the offending user. Look at the details to see who got it. Copy the list and dump it into a spreadsheet. Clean up to just a list of emails with a column header 'mail'. Save as a csv file.
Step 3 - delete messages with GAM Put your CSV file in your GAM folder - this e.g. assumes its called mail.csv
Run:
gam csv mail.csv gam user ~mail delete messages query rfc822msgid:MESSAGEIDHERE doit

 The alternative nuke option is:
gam all users delete messages query rfc822msgid:MESSAGEI…
Read more

My favorite GAM commands - well a few of them at least!

Where would be without GAM? Paying for expensive syncing tools or doing tedious manual tasks in the admin console. GAM can automate most things you might want to do in G Suite. So these are a few of my favourite commands - one I use either as part of a batch file - or just standalone. There are loads more - but these are ones that are used daily.
Classroom Create a spreadsheet of all your domains classes - gam print courses todrive

Create a spreadsheet of a teacher's classes: gam print courses teacher fred@mydomain.com todrive

Bulk create classes:
gam csv classes.csv gam create course alias ~alias name ~alias section ~subject teacher ~teacher status ACTIVE

where classes.csv is a list of classes you want to make.

Add teachers:
gam csv teachers.csv gam course ~alias add teacher ~teacher

Add students:
gam csv students.csv gam course ~alias add teacher ~student

Sync Students (in this example to a group - but could be an ou/csv file)
gam csv groups.csv gam course ~groupmail sync students g…
Read more

How to push bookmarks to users in Chrome via the management console

With the release of Chrome and ChomeOS 37 an update to the management console has arrived that allows you to push bookmarks to users.

Under Device Management > Chrome > User Settings > User Experience you will now find the option to add managed bookmarks.


In the example above, the bookmarks are applied to the sub-OU of 'students' - so all our students will get these bookmarks. Simply add your url and the bookmark name, click the + and save. These will appear in a folder called 'yourdomain bookmarks' - see below:



Be aware that to get these bookmarks applied on a Windows/OS-X device the user must be signed into Chrome. Update: if you install the latest group policy template you can push the bookmarks via policy on PCs - details are given here.
Video Guide:

Read more